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vray network rendering setup


3dworks

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today i bought a license and all seems to work well. where can we get a complete documentation? my main workstation is a mac pro but i have a pc in my network with 5 nvidia 980ti GPU's which i would like to use as GPU render slaves. how do i setup this configuration?

 
kind regards
 
markus
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thank you very much, excellent instructions. but on my pc i'm getting this error see the screenshot:

 

screenshot_20180131_Z600_4_-_Keyboard_gr

 

do i need to instal the license server on the vray server pc as well? it's not totally clear how i do setup the license there. or is it just a firewall issue maybe? EDIT: i have set my FW settings to system standard (recommended). sorry, i'm not too expert with windows, in any case it's windows 7 pro on that machine.

 

another question is: will GPU's on that server be used for DR?

 

kind regards

 

markus

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Markus,

 

Yes you need to install the V-Ray license server and log into your Chaos Group account. This allows the  machine to access your V-Ray license pool. Each machine that is rendering needs a render node license available to it (one per rendering process, not per CPU or GPU). This does mean that for DR to work from a client machine you will need a minimum of two Render nodes (sorry this is just how V-Ray licensing works). 

 

If you submit the rendering using the hybrid option (or use interactive), it will use all of your GPUs (and CPUs) on the server.

 

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Markus,

 

Yes you need to install the V-Ray license server and log into your Chaos Group account. This allows the  machine to access your V-Ray license pool. Each machine that is rendering needs a render node license available to it (one per rendering process, not per CPU or GPU). This does mean that for DR to work from a client machine you will need a minimum of two Render nodes (sorry this is just how V-Ray licensing works). 

 

If you submit the rendering using the hybrid option (or use interactive), it will use all of your GPUs (and CPUs) on the server.

 

thank you for the explanation! i can now render with the server pc, but only if i set 'ignore local machine' on the client (workstation)  mac, if not i will get error -98 on the server.

 

does it mean that the FZ plugin will either render on the workstation or on the render server pc? this would be a bit disappointing, as usually, render software is delivered with at least one *additional* render node which can be used together with the main workstation.

 

but maybe i'm setting up something in the wrong way?

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ok look before you leap (or post). I see them for sale on the V-Ray purchase tab online.  

 

Just to be clear:  

 

FormZ is a single license that can be installed on two separate computers, but only used by one computer at a time.  

 

V-Ray is a single license for only one computer.  For any additional computers we would need another license or a render node license.  correct?

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That's a bummer on the node licensing. Basically it means we can't use the DR feature at all unless we buy additional licenses. I would expect to be able to render on at least 1 extra node with the base license. That's how most other rendering engines I've seen work.

 

I realize it's Chaos who controls this, but perhaps they can offer a discounted package with 2 render nodes for users who know they will need just 1 more? Otherwise, the price for a single extra node is nearly 50% of the whole VRay for FormZ base license. That's quite steep for a node license for a small studio. If that's the way it's going to stay, I can definitely see more users building much more powerful single workstations instead of multiple render nodes, just to avoid the licensing fees. You can build an 8 GPU workstation now, and only need 1 license, which would be more economical than licensing multiple nodes. Of course this means you'd have to use the VRAY GPU engine exclusively, which isn't as full featured nor as stable as the CPU engine is currently.

 

Something to think about...

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same thoughts as justin, here... i was somehow convinced we are getting one extra render node, as usually a render plugin does locally render on a workstation. in this case it's a bit tricky to find out in the fine print that this is just a "UI license", never seen that before (at least not with octane, maxwell, and vray for c4d)...

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For what its worth I am finding that rendering on just one machine is fast enough that I don't need the network render.  If I was doing animation then that would be a different story.  One of my typical heavy models that would take overnight to render in Maxwell or Renderzone is now rendering in 15 to 20 minutes.  I am also looking forward to not ever using a render farm again.  I hate to think of all the money I spent there.

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I wish it was at least like FormZ license where we can install V-Ray on two computers, but only render on one at a time.  That way I can offload the render to another machine while I keep modeling (or work in other programs) without all my cpu cores firing on V-Ray.

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I just had a thought. What about using VRay in the FormZ Imager app? Is that going to require an additional license as well if it is running on the same computer? It can be great help to run the Imager app for rendering while finishing other modeling, views, lighting, etc.

 

Let's hope not. Tech?

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Justin,

 

V-Ray and Maxwell Render, unlike RenderZone ( unlimited render nodes ) are licensed to render only on the licensed host computer ( that has your formZ )-  RenderZone, V-Ray and Maxwell Render when rendering an image take up so much of your design computer resources that any other 'tasks' you may try will not be a pleasant experience - both suck up most of the CPU and memory and leave nothing much left.

 

That is why extra DR render nodes are offered at an additional cost - DR rendering is really worthwhile but you need other workstations and V-Ray has it's own distributed render manager like Maxwell Render, so you don't overload your design computer. I guess that's why most of us render overnight with limited resources. You can also add a high end nVidia GPU card like a GTX 1080TI ( your choice ) internally or in a external cage.

So I don't think a revitalised Imager would be an option... 

 

Rob

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Rob,

 

I respectfully disagree.  I have used Imager many times for batch rendering while continuing to use the computer for other things.  Setting the priority to low or reducing the number of threads used, can help keep the computer responsive and usable for other tasks.  You really only need 1-2 threads for other basic tasks like laying out the presentation in InDesign for example.  System memory is never an issue with any workstation I've had in the last 10 years.  Memory is cheap, max it out if you can or 32GB is a good start for todays workstations.

 

With VRAY and Imager, it should be even better, as I could in theory, assign the Imager to only use 2 GPUs (I have 3) + 50% of the CPU, and batch render images, while continuing to work on other things.  I am completely aware that these will not render as fast as if I had given them all of the computer resources, but often times, multitasking to complete multiple project revisions in one afternoon is much more important than full speed rendering. 

 

We absolutely need the ability to run FormZ with the Vray plugin, AND run Imager with Vray rendering at the same time, on the same computer.

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While I personally have no need for a Vray rendernode at the moment I also find it odd that this is not included.

(The Thea plug-in came with two nodes if I remember correctly)

Not only is there the question of how to continue modeling your project while rendering, but the pricing/licensing scheme almost makes it look like FZ being the plug-in for Vray.

The two machines you can put FZ on should to be allowed to be set up in way that you can continue work on machine one, including setting up your vray materials etc, and (i.e. while) rendering on machine two.

 

Just my 2c, not being disrespectful, happy its there finally - but imo 1 node is mandatory.

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I'm happy to be dis'd when it results in positive feedback like yours... I always have promoted the idea of using 'Imager' for many of the reasons you explain. My point was that V-Ray has it's own batch rendering tools for if you have bought the extra DR nodes and I respectfully believe that formZ is better off now spending their 'limited' resources now on improving formZ the modeller; and resurrecting formZ v9 development. It's time for a newer, better formZ.

 

By the way now that we have great rendering capabilities I am amazed that we do have some users with some very fast computers that are rendering 10 - 15 x faster than my little workstation. Have you checked the V-Ray benchmark http://forums.formz.com/index.php?/topic/6103-vray-benchmark-for-winosx-by-chaosgroup/

Rob,

 

I respectfully disagree.  I have used Imager many times for batch rendering while continuing to use the computer for other things.  Setting the priority to low or reducing the number of threads used, can help keep the computer responsive and usable for other tasks.  You really only need 1-2 threads for other basic tasks like laying out the presentation in InDesign for example.  System memory is never an issue with any workstation I've had in the last 10 years.  Memory is cheap, max it out if you can or 32GB is a good start for todays workstations.

 

With VRAY and Imager, it should be even better, as I could in theory, assign the Imager to only use 2 GPUs (I have 3) + 50% of the CPU, and batch render images, while continuing to work on other things.  I am completely aware that these will not render as fast as if I had given them all of the computer resources, but often times, multitasking to complete multiple project revisions in one afternoon is much more important than full speed rendering. 

 

We absolutely need the ability to run FormZ with the Vray plugin, AND run Imager with Vray rendering at the same time, on the same computer.

 

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